How I ended up in 3 Oaks, Michigan...

So, this is a new development.

Last night, my voice teacher and I were having our last phone rehearsal, before I go into the studio on Saturday to record my first Voiceover Demo. We talked about the material we've chosen. About how we have a BIG spread of commercial types. Big character choices. Different ages. Different cultures. Everything but different genders. (Maybe that will be a choice for a future demo.) Kat (my voiceover teachers) says that our hook will be, the engineer or commercial producer hearing my demo and saying, "Is this the same person?!?" That's what we're aiming for.

My goal is to pick up Voiceover work in 2009. Laying a foundation that I plan to build on, in future years.

After we finished that business, Kat asked me if I was available and interested in teaching a six week improv course at her theater in Three Oaks, Michigan. The person that she'd previously contacted (a very reputable and knowledgeable improviser, himself) had backed out, due to concerns about travel time and his own busy schedule. The class is slated to begin in February and would be 2 hours a session, for six weeks. Pay is several hundred dollars.

I checked my book and I could actually make time for this, after all. It would entirely eat up my Saturdays for six weeks. But that's a short time, if you think about it. In addition to the two hours of class time, I would also have an hour and twenty minutes travel, each way. Which is time alone to work on my show or my own projects or read a good book. I don't mind the travel. I appreciate the short periods of solitude, framing two hours of improv class. The travel time actually makes the gig that much more attractive to me.

I accepted the gig and emailed my improv instructor bio to her and she was printing the flyers today to begin getting them out to the community in Three Oaks, MI. (Which reminds me that I should get one and frame it at home, to commemorate this particular adventure.) She's anticipating that I will have anywhere from 8 to 12 improvisers in the class. I'll get to work next on planning out my class structure, as an Introduction to Improv and Improv Philosophy.

I know that I will focus on some instruction time, using short form games to explore basic concepts of improv. We will talk about trust and confidence and listening. About support for your fellow player. About balancing between bulldozing and leading the scene. About the power of agreement. About heightening the game. You know, the basics.

Then, when they master those concepts, IF they master those concepts, we'll move into longer games and actual scenic improvisation. I'll encourage them to be themselves onstage or variations of themselves. I'll give them permission to try new things and explore the games wherever it may lead them. Above all, I'll encourage them to have fun. To laugh at each other and at themselves. Because I believe that that's the primary reason why people take an improv class. To have fun. So, the "having of fun" will be another primary focus.

To that end, I don't believe that I can make people have fun. That brings to mind images of myself wearing novelty neckties and doing funny voices and that just reeks of desperation. What I can do, is remove obstacles for the performers so that they can find their own way to having fun. I can increase the possibility of having fun. I can encourage them to lighten up self-pressure and to go into each scene, anticipating that it will be good for them and celebrating successes, while understanding the failure, without dwelling on them.

Oh yes, it will be precisely the hippy-dippy, improviser love-in that you think it will be. I'm not just making better improvisers. I'm not making career improvisers. I'm not teaching the next Jim Carrey. I'm making better people.

While we all have fun...

And learn a little bit about improv...

For six weeks...

In February through March...

In snowy, sleepy, small-town, Three Oaks, Michigan...